Anthony Bosch testified against Alex Rodriguez in an arbitration hearing at Major League Baseball's headquarters. / AP

by Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY Sports

by Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY Sports

Tony Bosch, the former director of the South Florida anti-aging clinic that became ground zero for baseball's biggest doping scandal, was one of 10 people charged Tuesday with distributing illegal drugs to professional and high school athletes.

Bosch, who helmed the Biogenesis clinic in Coral Gables, Fla., surrendered Tuesday morning and has agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute testosterone, said Wilfredo Ferrer, U.S. attorney for the southern district of Florida.

Court documents do not specify whether the charges are directly related to the Major League Baseball scandal.

Officials said seven men were charged in the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs, and three more charged in the distribution of the recreational drug molly.

Among those charged were Yuri Sucart, who is a cousin of suspended New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, and Juan Carlos Nunez, a former associate of the ACES agency who was implicated in a scheme to exonerate All-Star Melky Cabrera after a positive 2012 testosterone test. Additionally, Carlos Acevedo, a longtime associate of Bosch's, Jorge Velasquez, Christopher Engroba and former University of Miami coach Lazer Collazo were arrested and charged.

Mark Trouville, special agent in charge of DEA Miami field division, said Acevedo was involved in both the PED and molly distribution.

"They were putting these athletes' health at risk," Ferrer, said in a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

Bosch, Ferrer said, "has accepted responsibility for his criminal conduct" and will plead guilty at a later date.

Bosch could face a 10-year prison term for his involvement. However, terms of his plea agreement state that if he cooperates with investigators, prosecutors will recommend a reduced sentence.

Part of his cooperation may include working in an undercover role with, law enforcement officers.

Trouville said Bosch admitted supplying performance-enhancing drugs to 18 minors; many of the substances were purchased on the black market.

While many details on Bosch and Biogenesis emerged via news reports and MLB's investigation, Trouville and Flores detailed how the operation extended deep within South Florida's youth baseball community, as well as the Dominican Republic. Trouville and Ferrer allege that Biogenesis' involvement included:

Recruiting high school athletes in South Florida between the ages of 15-17; the athletes paid Biogenesis $250-$600 per month to obtain PEDs;

Acevedo and Sucart expanded the operation to the Dominican, where they worked with the Scores management group. There, they recruited players ages 12 to 17 who hoped to prepare for the international signing period when they turned 16 or older. Bosch provided testosterone-loaded syringes to be distributed in the Dominican, and street agents, or buscones, would administer the drugs.

Collazo, whose ties to the University of Miami baseball program date to his role as a reliever on their 1985 national champion team, recruited area players on the behalf of Biogenesis. Collazo spent 26 years involved with the baseball programs at Miami and the University of South Florida.

Alex Rodriguez was implicated as a client of Biogenesis in documents that Major League Baseball used in its case against him last year; MLB suspended him for 211 games, a ban that eventually was reduced to 162 games by an arbitrator. Sucart's name also appeared in the documents.

Court documents allege that Bosch, now 50, distributed testosterone from October 2008 through December 2012.

Athletes or others who received performance-enhancing drugs from Bosch are not named in the court documents, and such investigations typically target distributors, and not users.

Major leaguers tied to Bosch and Biogenesis number more than a dozen; 14 were suspended last summer, most notably Rodriguez and Ryan Braun. Rodriguez is still serving his ban that will last through this season. Braun served a season-ending 65-game suspension that began in July 2013.

And a dozen more served 50-game suspensions last season - their punishment coming from Major League Baseball exactly one year before Bosch surrendered to federal authorities.

His testimony was crucial to Major League Baseball's efforts to discipline those linked to Biogenesis. Bosch agreed to cooperate with MLB and his dossier of doping calendars, e-mails and text messages became the backbone of baseball's case. Bosch eventually testified in an arbitration hearing that resulted in 162 games of Rodriguez's 211-game suspension getting upheld.

In return for his cooperation, MLB vowed to put in a good word for Bosch in any legal proceeding. That time apparently has come.

Bosch's operation was revealed when one of his former associates, Porter Fischer, revealed details of Biogenesis' PED distribution to the Miami New Times in January 2013; Fischer, who went to the media because Bosch owed him $4,000, later alleged that Bosch distributed performance-enhancing drugs to minors.

Dozens of players' names appeared in Biogenesis documents, and its clients included two players - outfielder Melky Cabrera and pitcher Bartolo Colon - who served 50-game suspensions in 2012 after testing positive for testosterone.

Rodriguez, Braun and others suspended in 2013 did not test positive under Major League Baseball's Joint Drug Agreement.